I’ve been charged for two ‘International Debit Card Transaction Fee’ and for two ‘International Debit Card Purchase Fee’ after I topped up my GBP Sterling Account by £500 and my Euro Account by £100. I thought these transactions were supposed to be free?
Ok, where was your card issued? (country)
Are you consumer or entrepreneur?
My assumption would be your bank charged you for foreign payments but without more details it is impossible to say something more concrete.
It would be strange. It would mean that bank will get a fee when you buy something on the internet (abroad) too…
Wouldnt surprise me and some banks do charge you when you pay in a foreign currency.
Thanks for all the replies. I am in UK and my card is issued in the UK. I used my UK bank account (Bank of Scotland). Haven’t been charged before. I purchased 100 Euros and I topped up my GPB account by £500. My previous top-ups did not get charged.
So the transaction in question was not one done via a Revolut account or using the Revolut card but is related to a top-up to your Revolut account?
If thats the case you’ll need to contact your bank for clarification, as it was them who charged you.
Thank you Alessandro.
I have a Swiss-issued Revolut card which I have used in Spain and France over the past few months, with no problems at hotels, restaurants, and car rental agencies.
Recently I asked my insurance company in the UK to charge my monthly premiums (policy is in Euros) to my Revolut card, and I clearly stated that it was a EUR card.
On March 4th they charged my card for the normal premium of 466.66 EUR + 1.5%. I contacted the insurance company, and they stated that my “bank” had charged me the extra 1.5%, not them. I got on the Revolut chat today to ask if there was any extra fee for the transaction, but support stated that “The amount that the merchant requested is indeed 473.66 EUR, as this is the authorisation amount I can see.”
Has anyone else had a similar experience? It’s Revolut’s word against my insurance company’s word. All I can do is tell the insurer what Revolut support said, and try to escalate the matter.
@AVal, you should request your UK insurance company to provide evidence that they are charging your card with only €466.66. It sounds as if they are adding the 1.5% to cover their card acceptance costs in breach of Regulation 6A(1) of the Consumer Rights (Payment Surcharges) Regulations 2012. If they refuse to provide such evidence or if the evidence is not plausibly of the card transaction itself, then you should complain to the Financial Ombudsman Service about the insurance company (not about Revolut).
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@NFH: Many thanks for the advice. I was not aware of these regulations. This is very helpful.
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@AVal, you might be interested to know this regulation derives from an EU directive, and is therefore enacted into national law in every EEA member state with effect from 13th January 2018. My point is that it is not UK-specific, so it gives you the same protection in every EEA country.
For anyone interested, here is an update to my dispute with my UK insurer over the surcharges.
The UK insurer claimed that my credit card authorization’s fine print allows them to take the 1.5% surcharges, which is true. I signed an authorization without reading the fine print. Since then, I revoked the authorization, and made a bank transfer using the SEP system, which fortunately includes Switzerland. I paid EUR 0.27 in SEP charges compared to the EUR 7.00 for credit charges.
I am debating as to whether it’s worth the effort to complain to the UK ombudsman. I can live with my current method of sending CHF to Revolut, and then sending Revolut EUR to my Swiss bank to make a SEP payment to the UK insurer. One extra hop and a few centimes.
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Why don’t you just make the SEPA transfer from Revolut?
The EUR account has been personalised for a long time and the transfer, unlike other currencies, do not have intransparent SWIFT fees
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@AVal, such fine print is unlawful, because it breaches Regulation 6A(1) of the Consumer Rights (Payment Surcharges) Regulations 2012, and is therefore unenforceable. Legislation always takes precedence over contractual terms, and contractual terms cannot override legislation. You should therefore insist that the insurer refunds the unlawful surcharge, and failing that, complain to the Financial Ombudsman Service, which would cost you nothing.
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Hi everyone,
I’m french, I haven’t got a Revolut account yet. I’m wondering if it’s an opportunity or not.
I will get paid by an african compagny, so not in euros or dollars. The country don’t belong to SEPA. I want to be paid in with a Revolut IBAN
Do you know how much will it cost per international transfer ? What is the fee charged by Revolut for a transfer without SEPA ?
I’m trying to reach someone from Revolut France, but there is no phone number, not so useful
Thanks
I live in France. I get paid regularly in Sterling to my 
account from the UK and there is no charge. I think that is generally the case for funds inward to your account.With the basic account, there is a monthly limit of 2K€ currency exchange between my Sterling Wallet and my EUR (LIT) account after which there is a modest fee. There are other options available which will increase this limitation.
If you obtain a account, I would suggest you make a transfer of a small amount in the currency you expect from the African company to ensure all goes well before committing to it full and be ready to advise of the source of the funds in the event they require verifications for anti money laundering purposes. A pay slip often does the trick.
Transferring money from my EUR (LIT) account to a Sterling bank will incur fees as set out in the T&Cs as it will for weekend transactions too.
Dear Fellow Revolut members. I am US Revolut card holder with home currency in Dollars. I also have a Euro account. I sometimes receive income or expenses in Euros and want to pay them into my Euro account . This works fine with Wise. But does it work fine with Revolut? I get no IBAN from Revolut, just an account number and a BIC. Revolut evidently treats the transfers as international even if they are coming from a Euro account to my Euro account, because my home account is in US. So do I pay international transfer fees from European banks even if it is a Euro transfer? I don’t experience any fees with Wise, but it’s less clear to me here. Thanks for any advice.
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I need to purchase something online that is coming from Ukraine - they are asking for US dollars (my account is in the UK i.e. in sterling) .
Is there any advantage in converting to dollars first ?
Would it be better to send them Ukrainian currency - as I think that is cheaper transfer , cross border transfer rather than swift ?
Converting first allows you to convert at a specific rate – when you think it is good – instead of at the moment of payment. You can also circumvent the weekend markup.
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